Local Author Guaranteed To Give You Thrills and Chills

September 5, 2023 3 min read 167 Views

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Meet the Artist: Kelly Romo
By Active Media Staff

Kelly Romo is a local author and retired educator with a passion for writing. She has always been fascinated by unique characters, stories and settings in books. Once her children grew up, Kelly went back to school. She completed a master’s degree in fiction at Pacific University and successfully published her first novel shortly afterward. She has published four novels so far: two historical fiction and two thrillers.

Kelly used her love of fly fishing and fly tying to create a bone-chilling thriller series set on the Deschutes River—complete with a serial killer who ties his victims’ hair in his flies. In the first two novels, she wanted to capture and incorporate the elements that make the Deschutes River special to her. She included whitewater rafting and fly fishing, the smell of sage and juniper, as well as the sound of a train chugging along the bank and the buzz of cicadas.

“DEAD DRIFT” and “I AM THE RIVER” are the first two books in the three-book Whitewater Thriller series, and they are receiving positive reviews. According to award-winning local author Craig Lesley, “Romo’s chapters with the killer are the most sinister I’ve ever read.” Kelly is currently working on book three.

Kelly incorporated fly fishing into her novels since it is an integral part of the Deschutes River. The author says there is a natural peacefulness and release when she stands in a rushing river and casts her fly. Sometimes it’s like hunting. She watches the water to spot a fish or its disturbance on the surface. When she sees it, she drops her fly right before the trout and hopes it will strike. Other times, she dead drifts to make her fly mimic an actual insect on the current, drag-free with no tension on her line — which is where she came up with the title “DEAD DRIFT” for her thriller.

Kelly also ties her own flies, which are little works of art she loves to create. Her novels take a year or two to write, but she can complete a fly and hold it in her hand in twenty minutes. Since the flies are tied with feathers and fur, Kelly feels they represent the land, air, and river all bound together with thread and copper wire. Kelly needed a serial killer for her story, so why not make him a fly-tying serial killer who wraps a single strand of his victims’ hair into each of his flies?

Kelly’s second book in her Whitewater Thriller Series titled “I AM THE RIVER” just released this past June. She is also working on a third historical fiction novel. So if you love thrillers and want to read a book set in Oregon, pick up a copy of “DEAD DRIFT” and brace yourself—it is a wild ride.